Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fall-ing for value painting

Please excuse the lame title. I'm kinda lame sometimes.

Anyway, when my husband proposed last April Fool's Day (that's a doosie of a story for another day), I booked a photographer right away. And right away, she referred me to Pinterest. I've been pinning like a madwoman ever since. And now, who isn't? I found this picture on another teacher's pinboard:

Sadly, it linked back to a Flickr account, which meant no explanation, no plan, nada. Last week, I decided to give it a go with my third graders, figuring out what to do along the way.

We began with 12x18" black paper. I went with black instead of white in order to better hide our initial pencil lines. Every kiddo drew three leaves, all connected, some overlapping. Each leaf was sectioned off with a few veins.

Tracing our pencil lines with bottled glue was... messy. Some kids got it, some kids not so much, but we got 'er done. The biggest issue was finding a good spot for 20+ pieces to dry, as all of my drying racks are slanted, which doesn't bode well for gloppy, drippy glue!

Once the glue was dry, we discussed color values. I gave each kiddo a piece of egg carton with white tempera as well as the color of their choice. Everyone mixed their own tints, then shared their cartons with classmates. Each leaf had to be its own color.

We'll be mixing shades next time. So far, so good! Thanks again, Pinterest, you wonderful and cursed black hole of free time.

2 comments
:

Very nice! I've never seen a tempera paint project with glue lines on black paper before...it looks great! I'd love it if you would head over to my blog and take a look...I just started blogging this summer!

Thanks, I'm liking how they're turning out! The tempera colors look interesting on the black paper, too. I checked out your blog and left a little note about a project we did in second grade with organic and geometric shapes. I just love the collegiality we can get with this blogging thing--it's so great!

About Me

Welcome! I'm a sixth-year K-5 art teacher. My 600+ elementary kiddos and I learn and work in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, home of the New Year's Eve Pickle Drop, which is the best local event of the year. I love it here!

Follow by Email

Followers

Follow with Feedly

Follow with bloglovin'

Pinterest

Please feel free to Pin any lessons you see here--it's all about community and sharing! In the case of projects that link back to the original sources of inspiration, I encourage you to Pin those original sources--let's give credit where credit is due! :-)